DEVELOPMENT OF A JOB ANALYSIS-BASED PROCEDURE FOR WEIGHTING AND COMBINING CONTENT RELATED TESTS INTO A SINGLE TEST BATTERY SCORE

By definition, content-related approaches to test validation do not rely on criterion data. As a consequence, regression and other statistical procedures for weighting and generating a composite score from a test battery are not applicable when a content-related validation strategy is used. This paper presents a procedure for determining the component weights for a test battery that has been developed on the basis of a content-related validity strategy. The Relative Content Contribution (RCC) weighting procedure is a logical extension of the conceptual basis underlying the rational developmental process used to demonstrate the validity of content-related tests. Results from field implementations of the procedure in the development of two promotional test batteries (fire and police) and an entry-level test battery (police) in two large metropolitan cities are presented to illustrate the procedure.     

Discriminative activation and maintenance of contingent self-reinforcement

The present experiment studied the process by which environmental events come to exercise some degree of control over the activation of contingent self-reinforcement. Through differential training, animals learned to impose performance requirements for self-reward in certain environmental contexts but not in others. Both contextual influences and periodic negative consequences for noncontingent self-reward increased adherence to response requisites for self-reinforcement.     

Relative preference for external and self-controlled reinforcement in monkeys

Monkeys were tested for their relative preference for self-monitored and externally imposed systems of reinforcement. One monkey clearly preferred to self-reward his own performances. whereas a second monkey favored slightly the externally administered system but displayed a small gradual shift toward self-reward as the sessions progressed. Unlike previous findings. unmerited self-reward did not result in rapid discarding of self-imposed performance requirements. The level of work output and the interactive effects of multiple reinforcement control are possible operative factors in sustaining self-imposed contingencies long after punishment for unmerited self-reward has been discontinued.     

Self-reinforcement in pigeons

Pigeons were trained to reward their own performances by eating from a freely available food source only after pecking a disc. The self-reinforcement pattern was established by fading in the work requirement and punishing noncontingent self-feeding by food withdrawal. The animals maintained faultless self-reinforcement for hundreds of trials after the punishment contingency was removed so that the birds could safely feed themselves without performing any pecking responses. In successive induction and extinction of the phenomenon, the number of responses per self-reward was observed to covary with self-reinforcement rate. By progressively raising the work requirements an animal was trained to adopt increasingly higher performance standards of self-reward. After maintaining a high response output for each self-reward the animal promptly discarded all self-imposed work contingencies and quickly resumed them again, though less durably, following additional training.     

Gender specificity in value structures

Separate factor analyses of the value rankings of 53 male and 77 female college students yielded three factors for each gender. Interpretation suggested Creative Self-Determination versus Submissive Dependency, Personal Gratification versus Sociopolitical Consciousness, and Existential Responsibility versus Traditionalism as core concepts for the female respondents; while males' axiological dimensions were labeled Communal Idealism versus Entrepreneural Pragmatism, Hedonism versus Egalitarianism, and Sybaritic Bohemianism versus Traditional Sobriety. Each pole of the female factors was interpreted as reflecting a major ideological referent component of the Women's Liberation Movement, while male factors were construed as constituting perspectives for interpreting varieties of response to feminist ideology. Techniques for increasing individuals' levels of self-actualization by direct intervention in axiological organization were discussed.     

EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING METHODS IN A POLICY- CAPTURING APPROACH TO JOB EVALUATION: A REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

This research was designed to examine differences in the predictive power of alternative scale weighting methods in the context of job evaluation. Two different point-factor job evaluation instruments were used to evaluate 71 managerial and service jobs in a metropolitan university, and five different weighting models were compared in terms of predictive validity and salary classification. For the job evaluation system having high multicollinearity and validity concentration, no significant differences in accuracy were found among the weighting methods. However, in the more heterogeneous system, prediction models based upon unit weights, correlational weights, and multiple regression had significantly higher predictive validity than models based upon equal raw score weights or rational weights developed by a job evaluation committee. In addition, the weighting models differed substantially in terms of the predicted policy wages and classification structures.     

Some contributions of a psychological approach to the study of the sacred

ABSTRACT

This paper examines some of the contributions psychology is making to the study of the sacred and its role in human functioning. The focus here is not on the ontological reality of the sacred, but rather perceptions of the sacred. We suggest that psychological theory and research on this topic offers: a clarification of the meaning of the sacred; new knowledge about sanctification – the process through which people come to perceive the sacred in daily life; a response to criticisms about the scientific study of the sacred; a sharper perspective on the meanings of religion and spirituality; a method for measuring sanctification; knowledge about the ways perceptions of the sacred predict important aspects of human behavior, and; an understanding of the sacred as a product of psychological, social, institutional, cultural, and situational forces. We conclude that the sacred represents a vital phenomenon of interest for religious and spiritual study.